Walla Walla music scene lets you shimmy with your chardonnay

Travel to Walla Walla, Washington

Mike Siegel, Seattle Times, MCT

Sax player Ben Knox plays jazz at Walla Faces in downtown Walla Walla during a recent Sunday afternoon. This painting, as well as the portraits on the wine bottle labels, is by the winery owner's sister, Candice Johnson.

Sax player Ben Knox plays jazz at Walla Faces in downtown Walla Walla during a recent Sunday afternoon. This painting, as well as the portraits on the wine bottle labels, is by the winery owner's sister, Candice Johnson. (Mike Siegel, Seattle Times, MCT)

Brian J. Cantwell, The Seattle Times (MCT)

WALLA WALLA, Wash. — We could bop to the live blues music coming from Charles Smith Wines long before we got inside the door. It was loud enough to match the reputation of Walla Walla's "rock star" winemaker.

It was Thursday, the weekly Blues & BBQ night at the sparely decorated downtown tasting room (at 35 S. Spokane St.) run by the flamboyant, big-haired Smith. He managed rock groups in Scandinavia before embarking on a career here that earned him "Winemaker of the Year" recognition from Food & Wine magazine in 2009.

Out front this night: a barbecue truck. Inside: a get-down band, full tables and a lone, dreamy-eyed woman dancing with only a wineglass as her partner.

My wife and I decided to keep looking for a dinner spot. We ended up around the block at Olive, a cafe / deli at 21 E. Main St. with rough brick walls, overstuffed chairs, butternut squash-and-goat cheese pizza, and an earnest young college girl on acoustic guitar trilling a nice cover of "Dancing With Myself" (maybe we should have brought along our friend from Charles Smith?).

It was Olive's weekly guest-winery night, with people queuing up in the back for sips from local Skylite Cellars. A winter weeknight, and the place was packed.

Add the for-sale paintings on the wall and you've got a formula that's catching on big in Walla Walla: great wine, good food, local art and live music.

On my last visit, in 2005, a half-dozen wine-tasting rooms dotted Walla Walla's small city center. Now, close to 30 have elbowed their way into downtown, with more than 120 wineries blanketing the valley, as Walla Walla has earned a reputation as perhaps the most prestigious of Washington's 12 winemaking districts.

"It's a small town, but it has this momentum to it, meaning the wine industry, the culinary (scene), and now a legitimate night scene on weekends," said Andrew Holt, of Tourism Walla Walla.

And there's something for everyone. While young families crowded Olive on Thursday, the next night we may have occupied the only table with a median age below 75 as we joined the 5:30 crowd at Sapolil Cellars, 15 E. Main, to hear silver-haired Carolyn Mildenberger on grand piano. One group of women had the distinct look of a book club.

As the pianist pounded out "Hello, Dolly" with more flourishes than a Vegas wedding march, an impish octogenarian tapped accompaniment with his fingertips on the piano top.

"Isn't she great?" Walla Wallan Louis Valiante, 89, asked us as he returned to his table. "I have a date with my wife here every Friday night!"